Big 5th of July Cookout

Hey Everyone!

I got a bunch of pictures of the big 5th of July cookout I did for my mothers birthday. Instead of doing like I did before I'm going to explain everything then post all the pictures..

Saturday night I took the butts out, shaved the fat off, slathered them in mustard, and rubbed them down with my bbq rub. I also took the ribs, took off the membrane, rubbed them down, and sealed everything up to let it sit overnight. We also did alot of other prep for side dishes and such, more so my fiancee than me. She made an amazing Yellow cake, with chocolate icing and strawberry jam in the middle! Also had a great new pasta salad and some veggies! My sister in law baked the green bean casserole, it was great as well.

I started this grill at about 9 am on sunday.. got up, got the coals going, got my grill clean and ready. I took 2 drip pans and filled them up with apple juice.. I refilled them both once. I sprayed the meat down about once or twice an hour with apple juice to keep the moisture, same idea as the drip pans with apple juice. I used about 2 bags of Mesquite wood chips, and what seemed like almost a whole bag of charcoal.

Everything turned out amazing.. definitely my best grill yet. The ribs where amazing, thanks to everyone who told me to smoke them instead of indirect grilling. Made all the difference in the world. I'm not a big leftovers person, but I will eat these ribs til the end, as well as the pulled pork. I pulled all the pork myself. After I pulled about half, I threw some of the rub in there and mixed it all up, then did this same technique after I pulled it all.. this made a HUGE difference in taste.. Make sure you enjoy your rub before you do this though.. cause it will definitely change the flavor of your food.. for the better!

Last thing I did was make my own bbq sauce. I made a Grape Jelly/Chili Sauce bbq sauce, and then added my own rub to a serving of the BBQ sauce and it was amazing!

I hope my mom enjoyed her birthday, cause it gave me even more confidence as a cook!